"We are winning a lot of deals in large enterprises right now," Salem told TheStreet in an interview after market close. "I definitely feel like McAfee is a bit distracted -- customers are asking 'are they a credible long-term security provider or will they get basically subsumed within Intel?'"

Symantec CEO Enrique Salem believes that rival McAfee is distracted by its pending acquisition by Intel.

Chipmaker Intel announced its surprise $7.7 million acquisition of McAfee last August. The deal, which received E.U. approval earlier this week, is expected to close by the end of the first quarter.

"We believe Symantec is likely deriving some benefits related to Intel's pending acquisition of McAfee," added Todd Weller, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, in a note released on Thursday. "We think history shows that in these instances some degree of distraction is inevitable."

McAfee, however, which reports its fourth-quarter results next month, scoffed at Salem's comments. "While we won't comment on our most recent quarter's financial performance prior to the official release of our results on February 8, we can comfortably say that we have not seen any increased levels of competition from Symantec," said a spokesman, in an email to TheStreet. "Furthermore, we remain very comfortable with our ability as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intel to effectively drive innovation in the security industry for decades to come."